Argentina Week 1

Our first week in Salta, Argentina has been adventure. It is a nice colonial city and everyone has been very nice...but we are definitely making some adjustments. For one, our Spanish is not great and their English is not great either, so we have been spending many hours studying Spanish--which is good because that is one of the major reasons we came here. However our heads hurt from trying to focus so intently all the time. Already though our understanding has vastly improved, now we just need more practice speaking.

The other major difference has been the hours they work. We usually go to clinic in the morning from 9am-1:30pm, then have lunch from 1:30pm-2:30pm, then go to our apartment for a few hours, before returning to the clinic for more consults from 6-8pm, sometimes followed by a meeting, with dinner usually between 9-10pm. We are not used to working such late hours...

A view of the center of Salta from the window of our 1st apartment

Our apartment, located near the central plaza, which with the exception of a shower which does not drain well, is very nice.

This is the clinic where Dr. Nora Diaz works and where we will be spending most of our time, doing consults with family medicine doctors and 4 residents. It is a private clinic which serves the lower working class, and has within it a variety of different specialties. It is located about 8 blocks from our apartment, so we have been able to walk there each day.

The consultorio area for Family Medicine (Medicina Familiar) & Pediatrics

We also had the opportunity to visit a public pediatrics hospital on Thursday, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me...it was archaic and made Ben Taub look fancy in comparison. Other activites this week have included attending a conference of all the Family Medicine residents in northwestern Argentina, attending a congress of physicians about healthcare in Argentina, and attending a preparation class for expecting mothers (the topic-what to pack in the hospital bags). Next week we are going to spend some time at a public clinic.

We have been able to see some of the city this week, on Thursday morning we took the teleferico up to Cerro San Bernardo to see outstanding views of Salta and the surrounding mountains with one of the residents

At the top, they had a nice park with a system of waterfalls
Cool entwined trees

Futbol stadium for Jake

P.S. GO UTES!